Posted 9/17/2010 1:40 PM (GMT 0)
Yes...those can all be Lyme symptoms. If the test is negative, remember that Lyme is supposed to be diagnosed clinically with the tests only offering support of a diagnosis if it is positive. A negative Lyme test result does not rule out Lyme for a number of reasons:
1. Tests for Lyme in the US are very poor and not very accurate. This is partly due to the complexity of the Lyme bacteria, partly due to political motivations around how the test was designed and which of certain details of the results most labs are able/allowed to report, and the fact that the human body does not make sufficient quantities of Lyme antibodies within the first 4-6 weeks of initial infection to be detected on the typical Lyme blood test.
2. There are many strains of Lyme (over 300), but the test is based on only 1 or 2 strains. There is little research on how the different strains of Lyme compare as far as which proteins they can expose on their outer surface (antibodies generated specifically for these proteins on the outer surface of the bacteria are what the Lyme tests look for, typically).
3. Lyme bacteria are able to trick or fool the immune system into thinking they are not there, thus the body will not make antibodies against the bacteria and thus the tests will not reflect accurately whether there is an active infection or not.
4. Lyme bacteria also are able to change their form into L-form or cystic forms, which do not expose the usual surface proteins and thus the body does not make the antibodies that the test looks for.
5. Lyme bacteria also like to mass together into communities called Biofilm communities. Then they produce a thick covering to surround the community and protect the bacteria inside the biofilm from antibiotics and the immune system's attempts at killing the bacteria. The protective covering does not have the same proteins on it that the bacteria themselves do, thus the body won't make the type of antibodies that the test is looking for.
6. When the body is under chronic attack, sometimes antibodies are recycled and converted into other antibodies. This has the effect of reducing total circulating antibodies targeted toward specific proteins...thus this may be another mechanism that prevents or reduces detection of the right antibodies on the test.
7. The antibodies the body makes may also all be bound up to Lyme bacteria, thus not leaving sufficient numbers of them available to be detectable on the test.
There are probably some other reasons for the poor accuracy of the Lyme tests that I have missed, too...